Universal Music Group buys House of Blues Studio for $4.3M

Artist Scott Guion paints music legends on a fence leading up to the House of Blues Studios on East Iris Drive June 25, 2014 in Berry Hill. Along with Elvis Presley, George Jones and Bill Munroe, Guion will be adding Dolly Parton, Jimi Hendrix, Flatt and Scruggs and others in coming days.(Photo: Steven S. Harman / Tennessean)Buy Photo

House of Blues set up shop at the Berry Hill property in 2009. Before that, the facility was called East Iris Studios, named after the street where it is located. UMG purchased the building for $4.33 million, according to Davidson County property records.

"UMG has acquired the House of Blues Studios in Berry Hill with the intention to modernize the space, while remaining respectful of its legendary and iconic status in Nashville’s music scene," a UMG spokesman said. "We will have more details to share about our exciting plans for the studio in the near future."

The colorfully decorated House of Blues complex, one of Nashville's largest studios, features eight buildings and five commercial recording studios, including Studio D, which was literally moved in whole from its former location in Memphis.

The House of Blues Studio in Berry Hill was purchased in November, 2018 by Universal Music Group.(Photo: House of Blues)

Artists ranging from Miley Cyrus to Yusuf Cat Stevens have recorded there.

By purchasing House of Blues, UMG gives its artists and their producers access to one of the city's premiere recording studios.

Commercial recording studios had a bleak few years in Nashville, and elsewhere, with artists increasingly recording albums in home studios, which are more affordable. But as the industry has experienced an uptick, commercial studios are rebounding.

At Abbey Road, the studio where the Beatles recorded most of their songs, scoring projects for movies, television shows and commercials has been profitable.

There's already a successful scoring industry in Nashville, and late last year the state instituted a new incentive for scoring projects that gives studios rebates for up to 25 percent of their expenses.